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 - Vital car safety equipmentAs seen tested on Mythbusters! This compact, inexpensive tool can save lives by helping you escape a car during a wreck if you can't release the seat belt latch or get the window down. It has a safety blade (cutting edge only on the inside of a hook)to cut seat belt webbing and a pointed hammerhead that will easily shatter a car window even when you can't break it without a tool. It's day-glow orange for easy visibility, is compact enough to fit in a glovebox or dash console and comes with a mounting bracket in case you want to put it somewhere else in your vehicle for easy access. I bought one for each of our vehicles. Rating:  - Hopefully you will never have use it.It happened at the end of our road several years ago. A mother and her child died in a car trapped in flood waters. So when our children started driving we have gotten them each a LifeHammer. Yes, it's ugly and yes I figured they would all complain. But you know. They all have carried their hammers, and if they don't feel safer, at least I feel they are safer. The LifeHammer is smaller than some making it easier to mount. The only complaint I have is that it fits very tightly into the holder. This certainly keeps it from bouncing out while driving but in a panic situation I would think it might be better if it came loose easier. I contacted LifeHammer to tell them of my concerns, and they told me that by fitting it tightly it forces the user to take a firm grasp on it, making it less likely they will drop it in a panic situation. That makes sense I guess. In any case even a 5 year old can remove the hammer from the holder so I guess it is OK. It is easy to see, and has two heads so it doesn't matter which way you hold it. Either side will shatter a window without much effort. We tried it on a junk car, and the door glass broke easily with 1 solid whack. The seat-belt knife at the end of the handle also works, though not as easily as the hammer. It took a little work to cut a seat belt, but it did work. This is a good solid product that works exactly as designed. Well worth the price. Hopefully you'll never have to use it. Rating: - Actually Have Used This!OK, so I buy 2 of these for my car and my husband's. He scoffs at it saying, "When am I ever going to use this??" Well, he hasn't needed to but I did! Driving home to Wisconsin from Rhode Island with a friend and my 11 year old son. We're in Cleveland, on the highway in the middle of the night and my son in the back seat says, "Mom, my seat belt is stuck." Of course, I ask all the questions, "What are you talking about?" and just a lot of "What?'s" Simple right? Just unbuckle it and fix it. After failing to solve the problem while driving and starting to hear some panic in my son's voice, I reluctantly pull off to the side of the highway. Just on a side note, this wasn't a part of the highway where there were exits for food or gas stations. In fact, the only exits were one's that I absolutely did not want to get off at fearing I would never get back on (no offense to Cleveland of course, we all have those stretches of highway.) I get out of the car and open my son's door to find that the problem which I expected to be easily solved, was not solveable. Somehow while he was sleeping, he twisted and turned and double wrapped the seatbelt around him. And it gets worse. Because he had spent 15-20 minutes trying to get himself out and had already unbuckled the belt, he kept making the belt tighter and tighter, to the point where not only was there no belt room to get any slack back, he started having trouble breathing because it was wrapped around his lower stomach so tight I could not get my fingers underneath. I don't know if any of you can picture this because my husband could not when I explained it to him. It dawns on me that I have this tool in my glovey, and I think it has a seat belt cutter on it. Do I actually have to use this? I couldn't believe that I did, but I tried every possible way to get my son out of this thing and just couldn't. So I cut it! I didn't have a pair of scissors or anything else that would cut this thing. I surely couldn't pull off anywhere, so it really was my only option. I truly believe this thing was a life saver! Although don't ask me how much it cost to replace the seat belt. Ugh! But definitely worth my kid's life! Rating: - The hammerSmall enough to fit in the console so it's right at hand. Hopefully never to be used! Rating: - LifeHammer a MUST!The LifeHammer is a must. If you own a car you should have one handy and visible for the driver and passenger. You may never use it (and I hope I don't have to) but it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
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